mattp269

I will write a review later but just wanted to say this about The Sun. We just got off today after having been pretty much loyal Carnival Cruisers. Have done a few RCCL and have another planned but wanted to do a short one on the Sun to see if we liked it before committing to a longer cruise. I can say, I am hooked. I have absolutely NOTHING bad to say. The food was fantastic, and plenty of it from the time you get up till you go to bed. The drinks flowed, with tons of bars, quick bartenders and some great options, I had never expected this.

 

This cruise, the staff, the food, the ship, the entertainment exceeded all of my expectations. I will be cruising NCL again, hopefully the Sun, maybe another ship, but I can tell you, I read some reviews on here that talked about the awful food...those people must think they are Gordon Ramsey, who I'm sure would have even agreed for the most part, the food was excellent.

Thanks so much for your review! :) I'm on the September 9th, 2018 - 7 night to Cuba cruise and I'm looking forward to sailing on this ship.

We've cruised several of the main lines: CCL, PCL, X, RCCL and HAL. We've been alternating between CCL & PCL over the last few years. Tell me about MSC. I'm looking at an October cruise for our 25th anniversary. We are already booked on CCL, but the Oct MSC fare looks very tempting. If I can get out of our CCL booking w/o paying any fees or losing our deposit, I may switch. The MSC cruise I'm looking at is the Divina. Looks like a gorgeous ship!!! Would certainly make a special anniversary. How's the food, entertainment, rooms, etc.? Looking at a balcony cabin. Thanks!!

Mrs H:

Although the Carnival board wouldn't be the first place I would look for assistance with MSC I would like to offer you my observation of the MSC Divina from Miami. I went on a 7 night trip in December 2013. The ship sailed to Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and to the NCL private island in the Bahamas.

The ship is stunningly beautiful. Other cruise lines should take a look at the Divina's theater which has no columns blocking the view and has regular theater seating. The central atrium / lobby is stunning as well, it has a 3 story Swarvoski Crystal lighted staircase that is just beautiful.

The balcony room was very nice and spacious and well decorated. The room and the entire ship was kept spotlessly clean. I was very impressed that there was no rust or chipped paint to be seen. The maintenance crew even used pressure washer at night to keep everything clean. Carnival could learn a number of lessons from MSC concerning the public areas of their ships.

Now, that said, that's about all the good I have to say about MSC. The buffet was very disappointing as there was no egg/omelette station in the morning, the burgers / fries and sandwiches were pre-made and were sitting under heat lamps. Don't look for snack items at the buffet at off hours as there will not be any. The food and service in the dining room for dinner was hit and miss. The bar service tends to be very slow on the Divina. We actually learned to order drinks from a wait staff person as this seemed to be much faster than actually walking up to a bar. MSC doesn't have an entertainment staff like you would see on other cruise lines. The daily program had very few activities. The shows in the evening were entertaining.

If you get it for a great price and don't need entertainment during the day and like to be 'adventurous' with food, it's a great choice.

Matt

I took an email survey from Carnival a few months ago that covered this subject.

It seems the tickets are somewhat overpriced for the majority of the performers listed. Living in Nashville, TN very few of the listed performers would play a venue much larger than the Wildhorse Saloon and the tickets wouldn't be much more than $20. The VIP tickets seem to be overpriced.

The rules of canceling a cruise where the performer cancels the show seem somewhat harsh as well.

Are the bar waiter going to get in the way of seeing the show?

There seem to be a lot of additional questions that could be asked.

Matt

"This is just another example of why CCL targets new cruisers as opposed to repeat cruisers........They don't know any better yet!"

"Large percentage of beaches in Carribean offer massages."

"I have come to look at the spa as a step about the art folks."

"...along with the free liquor tasting."

"There's a little known secret obout these cruise ships.... They're a business trying to make money."

I wanted to add just a little commentary to this discussion, and what I feel is part of the issue. And I would like to thank the number of posters I have quoted above from this article.

Years ago, other than people living in a major city or going to a major tourist destination, services offered in the spa were very rare to find on land. Carnival / Steiner have not keep up / adjusted pricing to compete with on-land service providers and therefore do seem very expensive.

As the poster stated above, Carnival is a business, and as such their obligation is to provide a return to stakeholders. I would have thought that a multi-billion dollar company would have had more original ideas to make more money for their shareholders than offering spa services, art sales, liquor sales & trinket sales. These product offerings were good enough in the past, they are probably fine for "first time" cruisers, but, cruisers who have traveled multiple times don't spend their money on these offerings and I am sure would "like" to have new opportunities when they travel.

Hi :

I just wanted to say I was on the Carnival Elation for the same cruise on January 15th and just wanted to add a couple of comments.

1st , I'm so sorry I didn't get to meet everyone on here that was on board, Juli I live just down the road from you in Murfreesboro, TN.

I drove down that Friday and it was great going from snow to no-snow the further you drove south on I-65.

I had booked a room via priceline.com and ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown Mobile, I only paid $66 and it was an older high rise hotel, but the room was recently remodeled and was very nice.

I parked at the pier in the parking garage ($75), I like being able to get off the ship and into the car quickly when it's time to drive home. I pulled out of the parking garage at 8:26am on Thursday.

This was my 17th cruise, my 11th on Carnival, but my 1st on a "Fantasy Class" ship. I would like to say that the cruise was just great. Progreso was a lot of fun and was great to visit, it was like going back in time. The Carnival Pier in Cozumel has so much to do that if you didn't want to you wouldn't have to leave to see anything else in downtown Cozumel.

I took my brother, it was his 1st cruise, we had a great time. I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone that has never cruised before or that has cruised many times. The ship is well maintained and the staff is just outstanding! Carnival does an excellent job with this 5 night cruise. :)

Matt